Education - Local Projects

Children Massaging Children - Ebbett Park School, Hastings

Beginning next term at Ebbett Park school in Hastings a programme called Children Massaging Children will be introduced. Teachers have received training from Eva Scherer, founder of the Child Connection Trust (formerly Touch, Love Health Trust). Eva has introduced this programme at health camps, school holiday programmes and a primary school in Auckland with excellent results. Her programme is similar to those run in Sweden for over 10 years. Results have ranged from no aggression amongst children, increased concentration and significant decrease in childhood depression to mention a few.

Low touch cultures (NZ is one of the lowest) have high rates of teenage suicide, bulimia, violence and addiction problems to mention a few. Reseach shows that lack of touch in the first years of life have significant effects on emotional and mental well being which can lead to these problems.

Jill Morgan (Programme Coordinator of the massage programmes at the Eastern Institute of Technology, Hawkes Bay) is assessing the effectiveness of the programme by measuring childrens self esteem prior to the introduction of the programme and after the programme is completed. The programme will run for 15 weeks. Camberley School, also of Hastings will be the control school, they will complete the questionnaires (before and after) but will not run the programme. The programme will be part of the Hauora (emotional, mental, social and physical well being) component of the Health and Physical Education curriculum, children will be involved for up to 30mins each day for a minimum of 3 days per week. Children will work in pairs and have turns massaging each other to catchy songs whilst following the teachers guidance.

For more information on Child Connection Trust go to. www.childconnection.org.nz